Lithuanian umpire adventure Day 11

When I think about the state of Lithuania baseball when we were first introduced to it in 2002, and then compare it to what it is today, we can take pride in knowing that we have made a difference.

And so can many of you.

You have helped this cause in so many ways - some of you reading this were host families when the Lits visited in the U.S. on one of their three trips. Others of you have coordinated the gathering of equipment from local leagues to ship over. Still others have actually handled shipping logistics, or made a donation, or supported Sam Griffith and I in other ways, some of which we don’t even know about.

What it all translates to is that baseball has risen to be the third-most popular sport in this nuts-about-athletics country, behind basketball and soccer.

Here are some facts about the sport’s growth and success since 2002:

* Lithuania baseball teams have visited the U.S. the spring of 2006, 2007 and 2008, staying with host families, playing baseball and sightseeing.

* Thousands of pounds of equipment, uniforms and clothing have been donated.

* Sam and I have coordinated U.S. teams coming to Lithuania to participate in their August invitational tournament since its inception in 2005, and then we have run the tournament, trained umpires and umpired ourselves.

* We have umpired adult league games in Lithuania, providing as many as four umpires to games that sometimes have none.

* Three Lithuanian umpires worked Little League regional tournaments this summer.

* Lithuania sent its first two players in history to the Major League Baseball tryout camp in Italy this summer.

* Lithuania now has indoor batting and pitching facilities in Vilnius to facilitate year-round training.

* Lithuania hosted its first Little League regional tournament in July, won that tournament and represented Europe at the Seniors World Series in Bangor, ME, for the second straight year.

* Three Lithuanian players lived and trained this summer in Illinois, and others have spoken to Sam and I about doing the same thing in California next summer.

* Some parents of Lithuania baseball players even spoke to us about what it would take for their sons to go to high school and play baseball in CA.

* Land has been earmarked for new baseball complexes in Vilnius and Utena., and the Lithuanian military, which already lends financial support to the Sporto Vilkai Cup each August, will play a part in ensuring those new facilities get built.

* Four times more kids are playing baseball in Lithuania since 2002, and they have a tremendous amount of equipment and uniforms from all that we have sent over, but there is now a coaching shortage. In fact, Lithuania Baseball is considering running ads in the U.S. looking to recruit coaches - they’ll even pay lodging and living expenses, in addition to a coaching stipend.

These are all new developments since Sam and I first laid our eyes on ragged-looking Lithuanian baseball players in sweatpants and t-shirts at the European Regional in Poland in 2002.

Through the efforts that all of us have made, Lithuania has had measurable success in European tournaments, and now the government and military are getting behind the program in an even greater way than before.

The whole thing is pretty cool to witness first-hand.

WE HAVE EATEN everything BBQ has to offer - eel, salmon, chicken, pork, steak and hamburgers. We’ve seen more pizza than Papa Murphy. We have consumed more than our share of beer, wine, moonshine and coke. We have seen enough cucumbers and tomatoes to last a lifetime. It’s been 11 days - time to go home.

To our growing list of Lithuanian friends, see you next year.

I’M OUT!!!

Lithuanian umpire adventure Day 10

Virmidas Neverauskas, the Lithuanian national baseball coach, returned from the Little League Senior World Series in Bangor, ME, on Monday with a mixed bag of emotions.

On the one hand, he knows it was a feather in Lithuania’s cap to have qualified for the senior series for the second straight year. And to play competitively, never being 10-runned, was an accomplishment as well. It was the first time in the last 10 years that a European representative had gone to any of the Little League series (majors, juniors, seniors, big league) and not been mercied even once.

But Virmidas also knows that life (in his case, baseball) is all about timing. And he knows that if he’d had two of his best players, his son Dovydas, a catcher, and Edvardas Matusevicius, a pitcher, things could have been different. Those two players were integral in Lithuania having won the European title a few weeks earlier.

But this is where bit got a little tricky for Virmidas the father and Virmidas the coach.

Dovydas and Edvardas were among the 50 players invited to Major League Baseball’s European Tryout camp in Italy. Virmidas asked the MLB folks if there was anything that could be done about the schedule conflict, but it was fish or cut bait.

So Virmidas headed off to Maine and two of his best players headed off to Italy, the first two Lithuanian players ever invited to this tryout’

The Lithuanian senior team went 0-4, but two of those losses came to the two teams that made the championship game.

“And we played seven innings in every game,” Virmidas boasted.

As for Dovydas and Edvardas, they report that things are going well at the 3-week-long camp, which ends Aug. 28.

“Every MLB team is there,” Virmidas said, “and so far, it sounds like the Twins are the most interested in both boys. They really like the strength of Dovydas’ arm, and Edvardas is simply an outstanding overall player..”

And what are the prospects that one or the other might sit across the negotiating table from an MLB team in the next week or so?

Well, about 20%, if you’re a believer in stats. In the first three years of this tryout camp, MLB teams signed 5, then 7, then 9 players.

Players age 16-over can agree to and sign their own deal. Edvardas is 17, Dovydas 15.

I’M OUT!!!

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Lithuanian umpire adventure Day 9

I used to umpire adult baseball. I did it for two years.

I quit because I got tired of players screaming at each other. And screaming at umpires. And fighting.

I remember a game at Amador Valley High in Pleasanton where the runner for one team barrel-rolled the catcher, a play that left both players injured and in a heap.

Before I knew it, the benches cleared, words were exchanged - things like “Hey M-F, we all gotta go to work tomorrow!” - and punches were thrown. I remember it like it was yesterday, and it wasn’t. I swore that very minute that I’d never umpire another adult game as long as I lived.

And then I started visiting Eastern Europe each year to umpire. Two years ago, on my second trip to Lithuania, I was asked to umpire an adult league game between Brest, Belarus and Utena, Lithuania. I did the plate and had a blast.

On this trip, I’ve done two adult games - one last weekend between Brest and Vilnius, where I had 3rd base, and another Sunday, where I did the plate for Vilnius and Kaunas.

I didn’t even know anything about this most recent game until Saturday night, when two of our Lithuanian umpires, Z-Man and Edgaras, mentioned they were scheduled to work the game and wanted to know if a couple of us could join them.

So, I had the plate, Sam Griffith had 1st, Edgaras 2nd and Z-Man 3rd. Vilnius beat Kaunas 10-2 and it was a pleasure to do it.

First, these adult league games are lucky to get ONE umpire (there are only about 10 legit umpires in the country), let alone four. So the players appreciate the fact that you are there. Right from the first batter of the game, each player coming to bat shook my hand before stepping into the box. Kinda cool.

The game was competitive, but not over the top. No throwing of equipment or slamming bats. No one tried to take out the catcher - in fact, if the ball was already in the catcher’s glove, runners coming home simply allowed themselves to be tagged.

When the game ended, the Vilnius catcher turned, shook my hand again and said thank you. Players from both teams sought us out as we left the field and said “Good umpiring.”

It was nice to see that some guys in the 20-over crowd still play the game for the fun of it.

I’M OUT!!!

Lithuanian umpire adventure Day 8

It was a final game to end all final games - a pitching duel, followed by a late-game rally in the bottom of the last inning to tie, and a walk-off, two-out steal of home to win it in the 9th.

This is the way tournament championship games are SUPPOSED to be, but rarely are.

I’m only disappointed that it was the Czechs, and not Utena, that prevailed 5-4. I say that for three reasons - the son of one of our closest friends in Lithuanua, Eel Man, plays for Utena; Tomas Kviklys, the Utena coach, is one of the hardest-working people we’ve met in this country, and the Czechs have the player everyone dispises, Marik Vykoukal (see Day 7).

Alas, Tomas’ team scored three runs in the first inning and led 4-1 going to the 7th, but Eel Man’s son gave up the tying runs, and then Marik, of all people, stole home to win it in the 9th.

The game was filled with numerous tense moments.

We gave the plate to a relative newcomer, Zilvinas Bareinke. And he did a fine job. In retrospect, a more senior umpire might have handled a few situations better, but Z-Man’s trial by fire was hardly a bust.

 

 

The first “uh-oh” came when Z-Man told the Czech catcher that he called a pitch a ball because the catcher had moved his glove after catching the pitch. That led to the Czech manager coming out to discuss balls and strikes, and led first base ump Bobby Gumbs to come down and break up the discussion.

Then came a discussion with the Utena coaches about a play at second base where Eel Man’s son took out the Czech second baseman on a steal attempt. The Czech player lay injured and the ball was loose and in center field. Z-Man called time, echoing second base ump Sam Griffith’s call, but the Utena coaches felt that call was premature and kept the runner, who was also on the ground, from advancing to third.

There was also discussion with both coaches about a Czech player squaring to bunt and getting hit in the hand while bunting the ball into fair territory. Czech coaches wanted hit by pitch, Utena coaches wanted a fair ball and an out, but umpires ruled correctly that the ball had been bunted off the batter’s leg and into fair territory and was merely a foul ball.

Later, Czech coaches wanted to know why umpires let Utena’s starting pitcher go over the 95-pitch limit, and they weren’t happy with the answer that under Little League rules a pitcher can finish that batter, but pitch to no others.

He insisted upon seeing that rule in the book, so as the co-tournament director and UIC, I showed him as the game continued. After the game, my last LL game this year, I gave him the rulebook. “I’m going to read this before I see you next year,” he said.

Oh, and how could I forget the Czech batter and coaches having a cow because they felt a balk should have been called when the Utena pitcher stopped just short of throwing a pitch? Z-Man had called time, albeit quietly, because the Czech hitter had requested it, and the Utena pitcher, seeing that, stopped.

So there was angst, drama, stoppages, frustration on both sides, the worst heat and humidity of the week, and the best game. It all added up to a memorable title game, and discussion about Sporto Vilkai Cup 2009.

LADERA RANCH beat Belarus 9-4 in the 3rd place game and then gave the Bellarussians all their jerseys and equipment before heading to the airport to fly home Saturday night.

AWARDS: Michael Janko of the Czech Republic was MVP after batting .600 with 8 RBI, and having both a good ERA and fielding percentage…Nick Pufpaf from Ladera was the top pitcher with a 0.00 ERA and only 4 hits allowed over 7. Innings…Sam Hunter of Ladera hit .653 with 8 RBI to win the batting title…Utena shortstop Evaldas Sinkunas won defensive honors for going errorless over 20 plays.

SUNDAY, we’ll go back to Vilnius and umpire the 20-over game between the Vilnius Vikings and Kaunas Lithuanians.

I’M OUT!!!

 

 

Lithuan umpire adventure Day 7

He’s No. 15 on your scorecard, No. 1 in your heart if you’re a Czech fan, and Public Enemy No. 1 if you’re an umpire or opponent.

He’s Marik Vykoukal and he’s drawn the ire of just about everybody not wearing a Czech uniform at this week’s Sporto Vilkai Cup.

I dare say if he pulled his antics in the states, guys would be headhunting him from the time he gets off the bus.

When he pitches, if a close pitch is called a ball, he stares in at the umpire and/or throws up his arms. When he bats, he’ll turn and stare if an umpire calls a strike. If someone makes a nice play against him, he stares the fielder down on the way to the dugout. His sarcastic applause and the rest ofthe show make me sick.

He thinks his feces are aeromatic.

And, apparently, Eastern European umpires agree, because I was appalled at how much they let him get away with this week, even after saying that they wouldn’t or don’t allow such antics.

Personally, it galls me to see the kid act out as he does. And to see his teammates and the Czech fans excuse it is equally appalling. It’s the worst I’ve seen anywhere in Europe.

It won’t change until umpires warn the kid and toss him a few times. Or until some pitcher headhunts the kid and he gets the message. And neither of those things are going to happen anytime soon.

Although there are now at least two American teams who have witnessed his act in the last few weeks and who will be looking out for him next time.

I can guarantee you that Ladera Ranch’s players won’t forget this kid. And the traveling under-16 team from North Carolina that saw him two weeks ago probably won’t, either. The baseball community is very large, but it gets very small when there’s a rooster in the hen house.

The Czechs beat Belarus 9-1 Friday to reach the championship game. They had hoped to meet the Americans again, and no doubt the Americans were looking forward to a rematch, too. But homestanding Utena beat Ladera 5-3, setting up final-day games of Czech Republic vs. Utena for the title and Ladera vs. Belarus for third.

I’M OUT!!!

Lithuanian umpire adventure Day 6

When I first started umpiring in Europe, my objectives were much different than they are today.

Initially, it was all about the intrigue of the unknown, traveling and doing something I enjoy.

It didn’t take long for that to change. The moment I arrived in Kutno, Poland in 2003 at the Little League Regional there and saw the state of the teams from Eastern Europe - Lithuania, Moldova, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Kazakhstan, etc. - it became more and more about figuring ways to address humanitarian needs, and less and less about baseball.

Sometimes that meant feeding a needy team or raising money. Other times, it meant coordinating a shipment of equipment or clothing to a sports organization or orphanage (many thanks to Robin Van Galder at FedEx!).

And now it’s turned toward teaching - training European umpires mostly, initially how to actually umpire and, most recently, working with experienced umpires on some of the finer points.

Thursday, as pool play ended and assignments were considered for the Sporto Vilkai Cup’s semifinals and finals, Sam Griffith and I agreed that the umpires who had improved most significantly from last year should be awarded the games on the final day.

Zilvinas Bareinke from Lithuania (aka Z-Man) will work the plate for Saturday afternoon’s championship game, Martin Suri from the Czech Republic will head the crew for the third-place game, and Rimvydas Vaitkus and Edgaras Matusevicius from Lithuania will handle Friday’s semifinals.

Considering where Z-Man was as an umpire just three years ago (lost), having improved to this extent - with no formal clinics and only one week a year of hands-on from us - is staggering.

His performance Thursday brought a smile to my face because all I could think of was Year One of this tournament in 2005 when Sam Griffith, Bobby Gumbs, MacFarland and I umpired every game, and the only help we received was from Z-Man when he could manage to get off work. His “Safe…Out…Sorry” call from that tournament is something we still chuckle about today.

But, again, that was then and this is now.

This is Z-Man’s turf, and being selected over his peers, who are formidable competition, is a noteworthy achievement. In this part of the world, the Lithuanians acknowledge that the Czechs have the best umpires, but the Czechs acknowledge that the Lithuanians are closing fast. And Z-Man is one of the reasons why.

Earlier this summer, both he and Edgaras were selected to umpire the European Junior Regional in Kutno where their work was stellar, according to our buddy, Danville’s Russ Ruslender, who was the UIC there. Rimvydas worked the Senior Regional this summer here in Utena. Arnoldas has previousl done a Juniors World Series in Michigan. Another Lithuanian umpire from this area worked the much-celebrated Czech junior championships this summer.

These guys are serious umpires who would fit well into any officiating environment I’ve ever worked in. But for now, they’ll have to setle for being big fish in a small pond.

FINAL POOL PLAY STANDINGS: Czech Republic 4-0, Ladera Ranch 3-1, Utena 2-2, Belarus 1-3, Vilnius 0-4.

FRIDAY SEMIS: Czech Republic vs. Belarus; Ladera Ranch vs. Utena.

PREVIOUS tournament championship plates have gone to Barry MacFarland from the U.S., and Arnoldas Ramanaskas and Rimvydas from Lithuania.

Z-MAN-SAID he was only a little nervous before the first of his two plate assignments at the regional in Poland. “I was more worried about the lineup cards than the game,” he said. “We don’t generally keep lineups here.”

THURSDAY marked the start of the party season for Sam Griffith, Bobby Gumbs and I as we ventured to Eel Man’s summer house by the lake for BBQ’d eel, pork, chicken and sausage. Friday, which is a national religious holiday in Lithuania, , is a BBQ at a local resort and floating cocktail party put on by Lithuania Baseball. Saturday is yet another party in Utena, Sunday is a celebration at a Sporto Vilkai player’s parents’ summer home in Vilnius, and Tuesday is a welcome-home party for the Lithuanian team that has been at the Senior World Series in Bangor, ME.

I’M OUT!!!

Lithuanian umpire adventure Day 5

 

Sights, sounds, musings and statistical anomilies from the first two days of action at the 4th Sporto Vilkai Cup in Utena, Lithuania:

* This 5-year-old stadium finally saw an over-the-fence home run Tuesday when Hamza of the Czech Republic golfed a hanging breaking ball from Ladera Ranch’s Dillon Diaz some 365 feet over right-center field fence. Approximately 210 games had been played here without an over-the-fence home run.

* Host Sporto Vilkai (Vilnius) has the only 2 girls in the tournament (Monika and Laura), but the Czech Republic’s Mic Kovar has the longest hair - and a beard. And 3 kids, for all we know.

* Speaking of Kovar, he was part of a small controversy during Tuesday’s game against Ladera Ranch. One of this tournament’s rules is that you must bat every player on your team, although only nine play in the field. That rule was lost on the Czechs, apparently, because they had no intention of batting their 10-11-12 until we saw their leadoff hitter come up again after #9. When we informed the Czech manager what he had to do, he responded, “These 3 players are not hitters - they are pitchers,” to which I responded, “Coach, they are players, so they must bat.”

As it turned out, those 3 “pitchers” finished the game 1-for-2 with 2 walks, 4 times hit by pitch (Kovar was hit 3 times) and an on-base percentage of .875 in the Czechs’ 11-7 win.

“We couldn’t get those guys out,” said Ladera manager Joel Hunter. “That was the difference.”

* Utena shortstop/catcher/pitcher Yusef Sadaunykas, son of Eel Man (you know who that is if you’ve been following this blog over the years) just returned from a 2-month baseball camp in Peoria, IL, that he called “the toughest thing I have ever had to do in baseball.” The kid runs like a deer and is a wonderful catcher, but dislikes the position in favor of shortstop or pitcher.

* Standings after 2 days of pool play: Czech Republic 2-0, Ladera Ranch, CA 2-1, Utena 2-1, Belarus 1-2, Vilnius 0-3. After Thursday’s action, the 5th place team (Vilnius) will be eliminated and the other four will advance to Friday’s semifinals.

* Considering they have no real equipment here, the field prep done by Utena coach Tomas Kviklys and Utena umpire Rimvydas Vaitkus is fabulous. They literally sweep the ground brick dust infield smooth after each game, chalk the lines and work the mound and plate areas with bottled water and push brooms. It’s not as archaic as it used to be here, but you’d never see anybody in the states doing it this way.

* New enhancements to the tournament this year: a digital-looking scoreboard that you can read from 200 yards away, sponsorship banners on the outfield fence, portable toilets, a garbage dumpster and cleaning personnel who sweep the grandstands and remove debris each day.

Now, you might say to yourself: portable toilets and a garbage dumpster are a big deal? And the answer is yes - especially when you didn’t have them before now.

Don’t ask!

* When this field was constructed, organizers had 20 tons of red clay (the same material used at most claycourt tennis facilities) trucked in from Latvia. Over the years, it got packed down pretty far, so in advance of the European Seniors championships 5 weeks ago, they had another 20 tons brought in and had it machine-compacted.

The result? With the wild winds we had Tuesday, some portions of games were played in an orange duststorm.

The answer? Tournament organizers ordered a water truck Wednesday morning and they put down 5,000 liters of water and re-worked the infield.

* The brains behind all the logistics for this tournament is Raimundas Kalanta, a Lithuanian trucking mogul who leaves no stone unturned when it comes to tourney organization and details. This guy really knows how to throw a party. He would normally have the logistics support of Virmidas Neverauskas, the national baseball coach, but Virmidas is in Bangor, ME, with the European champion Lithuanian seniors team.

* Watching the Olympics in Russian is disconcerting. Even the Lithuanians think so.

* What was Edmuntas Matusevicius thinking when he named his kids Edgaras, Edvardas and Edis? Edmuntas is a sweetheart of a guy who works for Lithuanian Ministry of Sport and has umpired in this tournament in previous years, but he’s off to Beijing Thursday to scope out China’s various stadiums. Alas we do have his eldest son, 22-year-old Edgaras, who is one of Lithuania’s shining stars, having just recently worked the European Juniors Championships in Poland.

* I am on a losing streak at Lithuanian restaurants. Wednesday I ordered ribs right off the menu and was told they didn’t have any. Two nights earlier, the same thing happened when I ordered a Greek salad. And the night before that, I ordered fish and was told “sorry, they’re all dead.” I felt like the aflac duck with Yogi speaking.

* One of the dads traveling with the California team, Jay Buckey, is the Umpire In Chief for Ladera Ranch Little League. He wasn’t part of the original umpire rotation for the tournament, but we slid him onto the plate for Utena-Vilnius Wednesday and he had a blast, as anyone would umpiring a game in which you can’t understand a word being said by either team.

* If you’re interested in any player stats from this tournament, go to

 

www.beisbolas.lt/sportovilkaicup

I’M OUT!!!

 

Lithuanian umpire adventure Day 4

This is a great time to be a fan of Lithuania athletics.

Men’s basketball is the No. 1 sport here - there is no close second - and Lithuania’s Olympic team is 2-0 with a dramatic last-second win over Argentina and a rout of Iran at 4 a.m. Tuesday that most Lithuanians we know got up to watch. Next up for Lithuania is Russia on Thursday at 11:45 a.m. - ask ANY Lit, they all know the schedule.

The Lithuania Senior Little League team is playing in the World Series in Bangor, ME, this week and even though they are 0-2, they have played more competitively against U.S. Teams than last year, when Virmidas Neverauskas led Lithuania to the European Seniors title and its first World Series berth at any level since the ’90s, when Utena went to the Big League finals in Arizona.

And Utena hammered Brest, Belarus 17-2 Tuesday in first-round play of the 4th Sporto Vilkai Cup and looks as though it may be around all the way to the final game Saturday.

OK, so Utena’s resounding win over Brest won’t make USA Today, or even Lithuania Today. But it was as impressive a showing by a Lithuanian team in this tournament as anyone could remember. We’ll know for sure how good this Utena team is Wednesday when it faces Ladera Ranch from SoCal, although Ladera dropped its opener 11-7 to the Czech Republic Tuesday.

If the first day of pool play is any indication, and it usually is, there are three very good teams in this tournament (the Czechs, Americans and Utena), two that have trouble getting out of their own way (Brest and Vilnius, although the former beat the latter 7-4 Tuesday) and one more no-show (Minsk’s visas were delayed two days, so they were told to stay home and we re-drew a new schedule)

If it’s true that men’s basketball is No. 1 here, then it’s also true that baseball’s star is rising faster than anyone else’s.

Virmidas’ passion and willingness to put baseball before all else is a huge piece of the puzzle. I’d like to think that Sam Griffith and I have had a hand in it too, having hosted Lithuanian baseball traveling parties in California, coordinating donations of equipment and jerseys, and being a major part of the Sporto Vilkai Cup, serving as co-tourney directors, co-UICs, doing umpire scheduling and training, and screening U.S. teams to participate.

All those efforts have manifested themselves in the form of more kids playing baseball here than ever before, participation in more international tournaments, more success in events like this, a couple of EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa) championships, hosting its first EMEA tournament and Lithuanian umpires we have trained from scratch having been selected to work EMEA regional tournaments in Poland.

It’s a pretty cool thing to have seen grow from that chance meeting Neverauskas and I had when he brought a ragtag Bad News Bears group of 12-year-olds to Kutno, Poland in 2003. I mentioned to him that I knew Sarunas Marciulionis from my days as a sportswriter for the Oakland Tribune. He grabbed my shoulders, kissed me on both cheeks, and a lifetime of memories began for the both of us.

I’M OUT!!!

Lithuanian umpire adventure Day 3

Well, we’re not the fully healthy 8-team field that we thought we were going to be, but we’ve got Ladera Ranch from Mission Viejo, the Czechs, Belarussian teams from Minsk and Brest, and Lithuanian clubs from Vilnius and Utena.

Let the games - the 4th annual Sporto Vilkai Cup - begin.

We lost Russia. The story is that the Russian government pulled all visas for athletes leaving the country, with the exception of those going to Beijing, in advance of their assault on neighboring Georgia.

We lost Sweden and Switzerland, but to be honest, we didn’t have super-high expectations even when they expressed interest months ago. Poland is another country that bailed after giving a verbal commitment.

Participating European teams receive accommodations, three meals a day and six games over five days, including at least one against the Americans. That’s not a bad deal considering the price -FREE!

American teams, which usually arrive 3-4 days before the tournament begins to sightsee, pay a per-person fee of $100, but they too receive lodging and meals.

Ask anyone who’s been here - you can’t put a price on this experience, and you CERTAINLY can’t put a price on it if there’s no price at all.

PLAY GETS under way at 9 am each day starting Tuesday and runs through Saturday. We have 7 umpires to get us started - 3 Lithuanians (all of whom have done a European regional tournament), a Czech (back for a second year at this tournament), and the trio known here in Utena as The 3 Amigos (Bobby Gumbs, Sam Griffith and myself). Before week’s end, 4-5 more umpires will join us.

And unlike the Day 2 blog entry, in which I detailed the deplorable playing conditions in Vilnius, this tournament is held at Hypodrome Stadium, in the middle of a horse track, and it’s as well maintained as any field for at least 300 miles.

MONDAY NIGHT, Sam and I conducted the coaches and umpires meeting. As we were cleaning up, Sam noted, “You know, it just wouldn’t be a coaches meeting in Lithuania without 30-40 empty beer bottles.”

I’M OUT!!!

 

Lithuanian umpire adventure Day 2

I heard about this field three years ago. Frank Harris, who was the manager of the first U.S. team to play in the Sporto Vilkai Cup, was told that his team could practice on it after they arrived in Vilnius from Mission Viejo in August 2005.

I hadn’t thought much about the story he told me until Sunday, when Arnoldas Ramanaskas, Zilvinas Bareinke, Bobby Gumbs and I made some small measure of history on this field by becoming the first four-man umpiring crew to work a game in this sports-crazed Lithuanian capitol city.

It just so happened the top two teams in Lithuania-Belarus interleague play met on Sunday, and it just so happened that Arnoldas was scheduled to work the plate and had no partners.

So Z-Man, Bobby and I jumped in and helped, and in a game that went 13 innings and 3+ hours, Brest rallied from an 8-1 deficit to upset the top-ranked Vilnius Vikings 9-8.

And that’s all well and good, but for me (OK, I’m a bit of a safety freak), I’m just happy no one was injured.

It’s exactly the minefield that Frank Harris said it was. Rocks everywhere. Two-feet-deep post holes, with no posts. Rocks everywhere. Metal poles in inexplicable places. Rocks everywhere. No backstop, save for the 20×40-foot screen that stands 20 feet behind the plate, meaning that balls disappear into the dense forest behind five times per inning. Rocks everywhere. No fences, meaning all spectators are always in harm’s way,

Did I mention there are rocks everywhere?

It’s a cow pasture without cows.

A quarry without a crane.

But the Lithuanians and Bellarussians are so passionate about baseball, they are diving all over this field -affectionately called Potato Field by locals - making plays and not thinking twice about the scrapes, cuts, blood and bandages that go along with it.

 

It’s all about the baseball, and no one’s enbarrassed by the conditions or making excuses.

It is what it is.

It’s the only field in Vilnius, an incredible 15 teams (FIFTEEN TEAMS!) call it their home, and yet even after 8 years, the field doesn’t look any different than the day someone pried up the first rock.

Why? Because the land is co-owned by a Lithuanian politician and a Norwegian corporation, and those two are at odds as to has control. While the parties litigate, Vilnius Little League, the Lithuania-Belarus interleague teams and other field users have no alternative but to take it or leave it - as is, sadly.

HISTORY MADE: Here’s the radio report of yesterday’s game that aired in Vilnius Sunday night:

 

“Brest beat Vilnius 9-8 in 13 innings in interleague tournament play today, and it was the first time in the history of baseball in Vilnius that there were 4 official umpires working a game, two from Lithuania, one from USA, and one from Holland.”

MONDAY, WE switch locations to Utena, about 60 miles NE from Vilnius, where play will begin in the Sporto Vilkai Cup on Tuesday.

I’m OUT!!!

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Lithuanian umpire adventure Day 1

I’ve seen photos of the Ladera LL team from SoCal having arrived in Vilnius to typical Lithuanian fanfare. I’ve read emails about their field trips, including an 8-story-tall water park slide experience that one of the kids called “sick.”

That’s “sick” - as in awesome.

Now, with the 4th annual Sporto Vilkai Cup set to start in a few days, it’s my turn to roll into town.

After having spent the last 3 days in Mannheim, Germany visiting my brother Jay, who is a Lt.Col. in the Army, I had a painless 2 1/2-hour flight to Vilnius that started off quite humorously in the Frankfurt airport.

I checked the maximum weight luggage I could (44 lbs. for a within-Europe flight), and had to carry on the rest, including a bag containing my umpire gear and some giveaways that raised concerns at the security checkpoint. A more senior person was summoned to come over and inspect what the scanner was questioning.

“You have a lot of metal in there,” the man said as he looked at the screen and waited for me to open the bag.

“You’re right,” I replied. “I’m an umpire. My equipment’s in there.”

First, I showed him my facemask. He took it, nodded his head approvingly, turned toward the young man who had done the scan, put my mask to his face, stuck out his right hand and bellowed “Strike!”

Everyone in the area laughed.

“What else do you have?” he asked.

I showed him my steel-toed plate shoes and a bag of San Ramon Valley LL pins.

“Why steel in the shoes?” he asked.

“So I don’t break a toe when a foul ball goes straight down,” I explained.

Again, he nodded approvingly.

“And the bag of…what are these, pins?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said. “Would you like one?”

“He turned, spoke to the scanner operator in German for a moment, then turned back to me and said, “We’d like TWO!”

As I left, these two German men were proudly wearing their SRVLL pins and not caring in the slightest that they had no idea where Danville, CA was.

But my annual Eastern European baseball/goodwill adventure was off to a rousing start.

As we prepared to board the twin-prop, 50-seat, kinda-scary-looking Lithuanian Airlines plane, my equipment bag became the subject of controversy again.

“Sir, can I take that bag from you and put it in the belly of the plane?” an airport official asked, “‘Cause I don’t think it’s gonna fit in the overhead compartment on this small plane.”

“Sure,” I said. “Say, how come you speak better English than I do?”

“Because I’m from San Diego,” said Bill Lieber, who retired U.S. Air Force, met a German girl, married her and never left.

Before he rolled my bag away, I gave him a pin. And, oh by the way, he DID know where Danville was. “Up there by ‘Frisco,” he said.

I was met at the airport by the Bareinke family - Lithuanian umpire Zilvinas, wife Lina and daughter Dominique - and whisked away to dinner. Can’t remember the last time I had Mexican food in Germany and Chinese food in Lithuania…in the same day.

Sunday is another field trip day for the American team - to Trakai, the island castle just outside of town. As for me, I’ll be joining Zilvinas, Bobby Gumbs and Arnoldas Ramanaskas to umpire a 20-over game between Lithuania and Belarus. Arnoldas worked a game between the two teams by himself earlier today. Later Sunday, travel plans willing, my co-tournament director and co-chief umpire, Sam Griffith, arrives.

I’m OUT!!!

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Check here for Lithuania updates starting Aug. 9

If you are interested in following the Sporto Vilkai Cup 2008 baseball tournament from Utena, Lithuania, which starts Aug. 11, this is the place…I will be providing daily updates and feature stories and trying to give you a feel for what this Baltic States event is all about…scheduled to compete this year in the 13- and 14-year-old tournament are defending champion Mission Viejo, California, Russia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden and two teams from host Lithuania.

Jeff Chapman LL Diary Day 18

Tuesday night was the Utena sendoff, and it involved tournament organizers, umpires, the Utena team and families, and the Irvine team that was being hosted in Utena.

It was a BIG bash.

It was held at the lakefront, weekend getaway of one of the Utena team parents (Eel Man, aka Gintaras).

Wednesday was the farewell celebration put on by Sporto Vilkai at the summer home of Ignas’ parents outside Vilnius. This party was for the tournament organizers, umpires, the two Vilnius teams, the parents, and the Dublin team that they hosted.

It was a BIG bash.

The point is, these people know how to throw a party, how to celebrate an event, how to be hospitable. Each night since Sam Griffith, Bobby Gumbs and I arrived from Poland, we have been catered to. At times, we have had to say something to the extent of “Guys, sorry, but we gotta get some sleep.”

They put us up in a nice hotel in Utena, away from the coaches and kids, so that we could get some rest after our 12-hour days at the field. We had large private rooms, while the Lithuanian umpires stayed in dormitory-style housing. They wouldn’t have it any other way. Quite frankly, it was a little embarrasing.

Each day during the tournament, they had pizza and other hot food delivered for us. Even when we said “No, thank you.”

Wednesday, they moved us to a hotel in Vilnius so that we could be closer to the airport for our flight home at 6 a.m. Thursday (8 p.m. Wedesday in CA).

Over and over again, they wanted to know: What else can we do to make your stay better?

They recognize that as ambassadors for Lithuanian tourism, what they are building here has some potential. Five years ago, Lithuania began making a push to attract tourists, particularly Americans.

And through baseball, they are accomplishing their mission. This particular push started with a couple of American umpires, and now there are two American teams participating, too. And bringing extra parents as fans.

And not one person we talked to could find a negative thing to say about their stay, which of course will promote interest by others to come.

And yet, for The Three Amigos, as we are called here, the clarity of the big picture is muddied somewhat by the Lithuanians’ over-the-top hospitality.

Last year, Sporto Vilkai coach Virmidas Neverauskas and his wife slept on the floor and insisted that the Irvine coach sleep in their bed. They wouldn’t have it any other way.

This year, Virmidas’ team slept in tents about 30 yards away from the buildings that housed the Dublin team. It rained at least two of the nights that we were here, and even though the Lithuanian kids said they had fun sleeping outdoors, you have to wonder if they’re just putting a happy face on the situation.

I asked some other Lithuanian folks associated with the tournament where they were staying, and their vague answers indicated to me that they really didn’t want us to know.

And if you think that the housing shortage in the Utena area is bad now, wait a year or two when they get another field built and go from eight to 16 teams.

Their attitude is: Don’t worry; we’ll figure it out.

BOBBY GOT PULLED over by Lithuanian police Wednesday for doing the equivalent of 84 in a 55 on the open highway between Utena and Vilnius.

The cop told Bobby he was speeding, that he needed to see his license, and to get out of his car and INTO the backseat of the police car.

Fifteen minutes later, Bobby came back. He avoided what would have been a $433 USD ticket by telling the cops that he and his American friends were volunteer umpires who had paid their own way to come to Lithuania to umpire baseball in Utena.

That was all they needed to hear.

Time to come home.

For the final time on this trip…I’M OUT!!!

Jeff Chapman LL Diary Day 17

So, what would you have done?

A team starts the game with only nine players.

One gets injured (broken nose) and can’t continue.

For all you umpires out there, the answer is simple: game over; thank you for coming; drive home safely.

For all you non-umpires, you must start a baseball game with nine players AND you must have nine throughout. NO exceptions.

But here’s the extenuating circumstances to this game:

*It was the championship game of the Sporto Vilkai Cup here in Utena, Lithuania.

*The game was competitive, with Irvine leading host Sporti Vilkai from Vilnius, 2-1 in the top of the third inning.

*There were 400 people in attendance.

*This is an event that is in just its second year of existence and that made a huge marketing push for more teams and greater attendance this year.

*The REASON the team had only nine players in the first place is because, to fill out the tournament to eight teams, Virmidas Neverauskas split his 18-man roster into two teams of nine.

OK, so now you have all the facts. Ignas (many of you in NorCal and SoCal remember him from the Lithuanians’ visit in April) breaks his nose on a train wreck at second base. They have eight guys left. What do you do?

A) forfeit - game over as per rulebook.

B) let Sporto Vilkai select a player off its second team, which played earlier in the day and was in attendance.

C) let Irvine pick a player off Sporto Vilkai’s second-team roster.

D) let Irvine give Sporto Vilkai a player off its bench.

E) rule a forfeit, but use B, C or D to continue and finish the game.

Anyway, there are probably a few other options that Sam Griffith and I had as Tournament Directors. But by the time that we walked the 40 yards from the racetrack grandstands to the field, Virmidas and Irvine manager David Lester had agreed upon Option B.

And so it was. Sam and I looked at each other, informed the coaches that what they had agreed upon was OK with us so long as we heard each of them SAY it was OK with them, and waited for the second-team player to change clothes.

Ultimately, Irvine won its second straight Sporto Vilkai Cup, 12-3.

And then everyone hugged and took pictures.

I wonder how jovial the mood would have been if the second-team player, who was with the first team when they toured California in April, would have stroked the game-winning hit.

Anyway, what would YOU have done in our shoes?

WHINEY WINNERS: The Russians came to this tournament for one reason, and one reason alone - to win. And when they weren’t winning, they were whiney and cranky.

Cases in point:

1) During their 10-0 semifinal loss to Irvine, two of their injured reserves were playing catch warming up, and the ball came loose and came flying onto the field, nearly hitting the Irvine first base coach in the head. The Russian coach, frustrated and trailing 6-0 already, screamed at the players, “If you’re not too injured to play catch, you’re not too injured to run, so start running.” And for the next hour-and-a-half, they ran, and ran, and ran around the horse track. About five miles, we figure.

2) Before the third-place game against Utena Tuesday, the Russian coaches saw the 3 Lithuanian umpires getting ready and approached me to complain. “Why do we have a Lithuanian plate umpire again? We don’t understand their strike zone.”

I told them the assignments were done on merit and that Rimvydas would give them a great performance behind the plate, and he did. The other two umps, Arnoldasa and Eduardas, were stellar.

After the game, I met up with the Russian coaches again. Their comment?

“It’s amazing we won 17-2 considering we played nine against 12,” their interpretor said.

I walked away shaking my head.

NOTES: Had post-tournament dinner at Eel Man’s house. That’s Gintaras’ house, for you Californians who got to meet him. Alas, no eel this night - hot dogs and such…The big hit at the snack bar this week was a waffle on a stick, cooked fresh, with chocolate sauce on it and either powdered sugar or sprinkles - 67 cents USD….Final records: Irvine 5-0, Sporto Vilkai 3-2, Russia 3-2, Utena 2-3, Dublin 2-3, Czech Republic 2-3, Belarus 2-3, Vilnius II 1-4…Watching the Vilnius II parents attempt to do the wave - for the first time, apparently - was hilarious…They played Credence Clearwater’s Greatest Hits between innings Tuesday. Took me back to my first high school dance, when Credence headlined right after releasing Suzie Q.

Final Lithuania impressions Wednesday.

I’M OUT!!!

Jeff Chapman LL Diary Day 16

For many of them, it was the biggest game of their young lives. Maybe not quite as big for the five kids on this team Am who represented Russia at the Little League World Series last year, but when you’re from Moscow and you’re playing an American team and playing an American game, the SIZE of the stage doesn’t matter, nor does the location.

It’s still U.S.-Russia, and the adrenaline rush is out of this world. We’ve grown up in a culture that makes it so, and even our younger generation feels that way, although for the most part, they’re not exactly sure why.

“I cannot explain it,” said 30-year-old Russia coach Sergey Zharov, who had three such U.S.-Russia encounters in his life before Monday. “But it’s a big, big deal to this team, and to us as coaches. Any time you beat an American team, especially at their own game, it gets noticed back home.”

Well, if they noticed back home on this occasion, they’re not happy. Defending champion Irvine, Calif., routed the team from Moscow, 10-0, to reach Tuesday’s championship game of the Sporto Vilkai Cup here in Utena. Irvine will meet host Sporto Vilkai, which routed rival Utena, 11-1, in the other semifinal. In last year’s final game, Irvine beat Sporto Vilkai, 3-2.

For the most part, we’ve become desensitized to the significance of U.S.-Russia matchups nowadays. It’s not Al Michaels calling Olympic hockey from Lake Placid anymore.

Safe to say the outcome of any U.S.-Russia competition these days is an infinitely bigger deal if you’re from Russia than if you’re from the states.

“Big things can still happen for you if you beat an American team,” said Zharov, who added that the reason the Russians came to the tournament this year was because there were two American teams. Russia beat Dublin, Calif., 8-5 earlier in the tournament.

The way the Russian players celebrated that victory that day, it was obviously more than just another win. And I suppose you could say that the way they dejectedly accepted defeat Monday, pretty much the same thing is true.

“Three hours ago, I was so hopeful we would play well,” said Zharov. “We’re very disappointed. We wanted to go 2-0 against the Americans.”

Irvine coach David Lester said his team’s focus was clearly different than Russia’s.

“Make the championship game - that was our goal,” he said. “That, and to come over here and play as many different teams as we could. It just so happens we drew Russia today, but it wasn’t a matchup we were looking at.”

In fact, Irvine had already beaten Russia here, 7-1 in a practice game before the tournament began. As such, Lester didn’t care if they drew the Russians in the tournament or not.

“No offense to the Russians,” said Lester, “but quite frankly, I would rather have played Belarus today, only because we never got a chance to play them this week.”

NOTES: We gave Lithuania’s best umpire, Arnoldas Ramanaskas, the plate for the championship game…Sunday, I mentioned that we had been joined by a fifth Lithuanian umpire, “Big Ed,” and that he was the son of our 20-year-old ump, Ed. So, naturally, I assumed the 20-year-old was a Jr. I was wrong. Father is Edmundas and the 20-year-old is Edgaras. Monday, I met the two younger boys, Edvardas and Edis. Ed, Ed, Ed, and Ed. Couldn’t make this up…The Czech team has two players whose last names are Chalupa and Moron. Couldn’t make this up, either.

I’M OUT!!!

Jeff Chapman LL Diary Day 15

It’ll be Moscow vs. Irvine, Calif., in one game and Vilnius against Utena in the all-Lithuanian second semifinal of the Sporto Vilkai Cup here in Utena Monday.

The largest crowd in tournament history - OK, so it’s only two years’ worth of history, but what the heck? - watched Utena trim the Czech Republic 5-4 Sunday afternoon, an outcome that set in stone all the pairings for Monday.

If the Czechs had beaten Utena, we would have had to replay the Czech-Vilnius II game from Saturday. That’s the game I wrote so much about yesterday in which the Lithuanian plate umpire struggled so terribly.

Anyway, the Czechs are OK with the fact that the game will not be replayed, since a reversal of the outcome wouldn’t put them in the semis anyway.

The team that is the most happy about the Czech-Utena outcome, to be perfectly honest, is the team of umpires, who get to avoid their third consecutive 7:45 a.m. to 9 p.m. day at the field.

Monday’s other two games, weather-permitting: Dublin vs. Czech Republic, and Belarus-Vilnius II.

A QUICK WALK in front of the bleachers during Sunday night’s 5-4 Dublin victory over Sporto Vilkai (Vilnius I) found the following: vodka, whiskey, beer, cigars and cigarettes. One Lithuanian father saw me making mental notes, held up his bottle and said, “Sure…why not?”

SAM GRIFFITH, Bobby Gumbs and I gave away all our throat protectors in Kutno to teams that didn’t have them. So we came to Utena with the ones on our masks, and that’s it. And then we gave THOSE away, too, to Russia, Belarus and the Czechs.

So, of course, Sam took a wicked shot off the throat Sunday…couldn’t catch his breath, and then couldn’t utter a sound for the final four innings of Russia’s 9-0 rout of Belarus.

He’s fine now, but there’s a reason we enforce the throat guard rule.

BEST SHOT of the day: We picked up another Lithuanian umpire Sunday - the father of our first-year, 20-year-old ump, Edward.

“Big Ed” had the plate for Dublin-Sporto Vilkai Sunday night, and he was an absolute sight to behold - Paul Bunyan in gear, if you will - as he prepared to take the field: red and yellow shin guards over the top of black jeans and chest protector over the top of a t-shirt…he’d just come from Vilnius, about 90 minutes away, where he did a 9-inning senior men’s game earlier in the day - by himself. By end of day, he had plate slacks and an umpire shirt big enough to pull over his muscles/chest protector, thanks to Bobby.

SECOND-BEST shot of the day: Dublin manager Mike Schaaf in the third-base coach’s box, coaching his team while videotaping the action.

NOTES: Two one-sided games in a row for me. I had the plate for Irvine’s 18-0 rout of Vilnius II Sunday. On Saturday, I did the 20-0 Utena adult men’s victory over Belarus…We gave the semifinal plate assignments to Bobby and to Rimvydas, who is one of the best Lithuanian umps we’ve seen this week…Tom Kelly paid us a visit today. He hails from Manhattan Beach, CA, works for the U.S. Embassy in Vilnius, and his son, Sean, plays for Vilnius II. He’s been our point of contact for shipping equipment and clothing/jerseys to Lithuania…Speaking of jerseys, Irvine’s kids had to do a double-take when they traveled halfway round the world and saw the Vilnius II team wearing Trabuco Canyon jerseys. The two leagues are 10 miles apart.

I’M OUT!!!

Jeff Chapman LL Diary Day 14

Back in the day, he was The Man, a legend in the making, and the impetus for younger umpires to follow in his footsteps.

The man’s umpiring resume is as long and illustrious as anyone in the region:

* Lithuania’s first baseball in 1987.

* Umpired in over 20 countries, including every country that used to make up the former Soviet Union.

* Mentored most of Lithuania’s veteran umpires, including Arnoldas Ramanaskas, who did the LL Juniors World Series last year.

We were honored to make his acquaintance and to watch him umpire the bases on Friday’s first day of the Sporto Vilkai Cup here in Utena.

And there was a bit of anticipation as he prepared to work the plate for Saturday’s Czech Republic vs. Vilnius II game.

I didn’t understand a word he said at the pre-game plate meeting, but the Czechs seemed to understand, and certainly the Lithuanians did.

But then the horror show began.

There’s no other way to put it, unless you want to use the word “travesty”.

We’ve all had bad days and blown a call here and there. As co-tourney director/UIC Sam Griffith and I agreed afterward, no umpire working his first-ever game could be more out of his element. And this guy’s 64 years old, with well over a THOUSAND games under his belt.

This is not to rip the man, but to honor a great career that everyone agrees is over except him. And that’s sad.

It unfolded like this.

The Czechs came out swinging in the top of the first and went down on four pitches. The only pitch they did NOT swing at was a piped fastball that was inexplicably called a ball. It was a sign of things to come.

The bottom of the first was the longest, most frustrating, maddening experience I’ve ever been associated with as an umpire.

From second base, I counted 20 first-inning pitches that he called balls that I thought were strikes. I thought the Czech coach was going to burst a blood vessel in his neck. They pulled the starting pitcher when it was 6-0, not so much because he didn’t have it as because he lost his composure and became suicidal. It was 9-0 going to the second and even the other Lithuanian umpires in attendance wanted him removed from the game.

Twice during the inning, I called time and came in to speak to him. I told him that he had to call more strikes. Each time, he nodded his head as though he understood.

During the first-inning pitching change, Sam called him over to the fence and implored him to call a strike every once in awhile. Pretty sure he said it differently than that, but that’s the gist of it.

Ultimately, the Czechs’ 9-0 hole became a 14-12 loss, and the closeness of the final outcome - they left the bases loaded in the final inning - had them even more frustrated than they were when they were slamming caps and gloves to the ground in the first inning. At one point, the Czech coach had a bat in his hand and was headed in his direction, and I wasn’t totally sure what his intentions were.

Anyway, after the game, the Czechs were looking for some grounds to protest, asking for the game to be replayed, and even threatening to drive home and not finish the tournament. They’d been wronged, we all agreed, but we pointed out that they compounded the first-inning umpire inadequacies with four two-out errors that turned a 3-0 or 4-0 game into 9-0, and that the umpiring was equally bad for both teams, but that in all fairness to their request about replaying the game, we’d check with the Vilnius II coach, Virmidas Neverauskas, and see what he was willing to do.

This is, after all, Virmidas’ tournament. We are just running it for him. He wants this tournament to grow, so we told the Czech coach that we thought Virmidas might be willing to comply with the Czechs’ request as soon as we hooked up with him.

In fact, Virmidas did agree to replay the game Monday morning, so that is what we’ll do.

In the meantime, I had the unenviable task of telling the umpire that we were taking him off his scheduled plate assignment for Sunday. Moreover, four other teams that saw the game in question filed “protests” Saturday saying they wouldn’t play if this umpire was working their game. The die was cast. We had to remove the umpire from the tournament.

He said he didn’t understand. He still thinks he did a good job. He still thinks he is a competent plate umpire.

I felt like a schmuck telling him he was wrong. And I wish I’d see him in his heyday.

ONE MORE DAY of pool play remains before the semis on Monday.

In Pool A, host Vilnius I is 2-0, Russia and Belarus are 1-1, and Dublin is 0-2. Dublin fell to Belarus 10-7 on Saturday.

In Pool B, Irvine, California is 2-0, Utena is 1-1 and both Vilnius II and the Czechs are 0-1.

GOT AN UNUSUAL opportunity Saturday. Scheduled on the field where this tournament is being contested was a European Interleague B Group adult game between Utena and Skidel, Belarus.

Local umpires deferred to the visitors, and I ended up doing the plate in what quickly developed into a 20-0, 6-inning Vilnius victory. So one-sided are these games on a regular basis that they have a 20-run rule after five innings.

Fun nonetheless, and for laughs, you couldn’t beat the moment when the dusgusted Belarus first baseman refused to chase an overthrow - hands on hips, head cocked, cussing in Russian - while 3 runs scored.

I’M OUT!!!

Jeff Chapman LL Diary Day 13

It was a moment that made me pause and reflect. “How cool is this?” I thought to myself.

Dutch umpire Bobby Gumbs and I were standing alongside the Utena Racetrack. In the racetrack infield is the only 90-foot baseball field for 300 miles in any direction.

A group of 13-year-olds from Dublin, California was playing Moscow, Russia. Warming up to play the next game were teams from Brest, Belarus and Vilnius, Lithuania.

Four teams from four countries and an umpire from yet another. In the Middle of Nowhere, Eastern Europe.

The world gets smaller.

“How cool is this?”

And all because I got the opportunity to know Sarunas Marciulionis.

I was a sportswriter for the Oakland Tribune when Marciulionis, who is from Vilnius, played for the Golden State Warriors. We got to know each other quite well in his years in Oakland.

Fast forward to 2002 when I first visited Kutno, Poland and crossed paths with Lithuanian coach Virmidas Neverauskas. I introduced myself as someone who knew Marciulionis. That was the tie that binds, apparently, because here we are.

It’s Year 2 of the Sporto Vilkai Cup, and the tournment has grown from five teams to eight, from one American team to two. The Lithuanian field that needed so much work one year ago has undergone major changes, and amenities now abound.

They have a scoreboard, a table and umbrella for scorekeepers, bleachers, covered dugouts, a snackbar, music between innings, computerized statistics, a nurse and medical supplies and, most notably, subtle little changes to improve the playing field itself.

These folks are serious about putting together the best baseball tournament of its kind in this part of the world, short of the European Junior LL Regional in Poland. And if they keep drawing more teams from the U.S., they’ll keep attracting European powers like Russia and the Czech Republic, both of whom passed on the opportunity to participate last year.

(The Czechs were anything but powerful Friday, being 10-runned by Irvine, California, 13-1. In the two Pool B games, Russia beat Dublin 9-5 and Vilnius handled Belarus by the same score)

Short of adding lights here in Utena, which is an expense that would have to be underwritten by some corporation, most likely Utenos Brewery, they can only play four or five games a day on this field. That limits the tournament field to 8-10 teams.

As such, some consideration is being given to playing one pool in Belarus, where they built a new 90-foot stadium a year ago, and a second pool here in Utena, with the championship game rotating between the two locations each year.

On the one hand, that possibility seems light years away. On the other, such tremendous strides were made between the first and second year, anything is possible.

WE GOT OUR first real look at Lithuanian umpires Friday. There are five of them working this tournament, and we saw the whole spectrum of ability levels.

Arnoldas Ramanaskas, a 10-yeat vet who did the Juniors World Series in Taylor, MI, last year, was outstanding. Edwardas Matusevicius is a 20-year-old in his first year, and he was very good as well.

As for the other three, including 64-year-old Edmundas JusciusN the first Llithuanian umpire going back 19 years, we’ll reserve judgment until Saturday, when all have their first plate assignments.

But this is as much a tournament for Lithuanian umpires as it is for anyone else. Sam Griffith, Bobby Gumbs and I have been offering to give an umpire clinic here for years and, in essence, we’re giving it during games, as we are working three-man mechanics, with one of the three of us working with two of the five of them each game in pool play.

KEVIN GILLMORE, please know that the 5 pair of umpire slacks, 2 shirts, 2 jackets and 2 pairs of shoes you gave me all have new Lithuanian homes now. The Lithuanian umpires wearing all the new gear looked great Friday and, according to Arnoldas, “now, we all look like umpires.”

I’M OUT!!!

Jeff Chapman LL Diary Day 12

Had a relatively uneventful 10-hour drive from Kutno, Poland to Utena, Lithuania on Thursday. Bobby Gumbs drove and Sam Griffith navigated, which gave me time to reflect on the European Regional LL Tournament.THINGS I WILL MISS:

*The Italians - no one can replace Diane Harley’s Scots, but Mario Andriolo’s Italians came close.

*Jana’s - no friendlier umpire hangout exists. The food is fabulous and extremely affordable, and Hooters had better watch out if they ever franchise to the states.

*The Germans - this team was “as cool as the under side of the pillow,” just like their manager, Kai Leiter, who works with at-risk kids.

*Kilbasa at the snack bar - no day at the fields was complete without a grilled sausage and fresh-baked sourdough roll, with tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and Polish “dijonaise”.

*The Austrians - Phil Chapin’s club was plucky, not overly talented but passionate enough to be successful. Tough to fill predecessor Ken MacDonald’s shoes, but Phil had the right stuff.

*Downtown Kutno - the cobblestone street, with the twin-tower Catholic church at one end and Polish history museum at the other, isn’t open to automobile traffic, which attracts townspeople to stroll, shop and simply bench-sit. The Polish people, we have come to learn, bench-sit whenever possible.

*Sweet corn on pizza - who knew?

*The Russians - These kids were given a loose leash to interact with umpires and other teams when they weren’t playing or practicing, and we found them to be polite, funny, social and an absolute joy to be around.

*Beata Kaszuba and the regional LL staff - there’s nothing these folks won’t do for the teams, umpires and other volunteers who help out during the 6-week tournament season that ended Thursday. Case in point, the gal who holds the place together, Yola the cleaning engineer, gets umpires’ laundry back to them in about 3 hours. I can’t do my OWN laundry in 3 hours, and she’s doing laundry for 12 umpires and 13 TEAMS.

*Watching the grounds crew - Johnny Smczyznski and his hard-working staff never cease to amaze. After it rained for 18 hours on Sunday, they had 3 fields prepped and in perfect shape for 10 a.m. games the next day.

*Hearts - The every-other-night hearts game in the umpires’ hospitality room was a riot. Thank you to Vic Langford for taking the queen often and taking it with hilariously funny and sarcastic British humor.

*Polish beer - but the good news is that we’re going to Utena, where they brew Utenos.

*Gil Ladoucer - Our Canadian umpire buddy announced Wednesday that he won’t be returning to Kutno next year after a 9-year run. Gil and Russ Ruslender have handled umpire scheduling and acted as Umpires in Chief of this event since 1999, and the two of them started the umpires’ involvement in supporting the Kutno orphanage.

*Ambience of the event - This is still the best-kept secret among the LL regionals. For reasons why, see above and the first 11 days’ diaries.

THINGS I WON’T MISS:

*Rain - We lost 7 games, including an entire day’s schedule, the first time it’s ever happened in this regional.

*Bees - They’re everywhere. As Bobby would say, “WHAT THE HECK!?” One flew up Perry Tucker’s pant leg and stung him WHILE he was umpiring. “He’s…..OUCH!”

*Polish roads - It’s no damned wonder you can’t get anywhere quickly in this country. We never saw anything wider than a two-lane road all day.

*Devaluation of the dollar - when I first started coming to Kutno in 2003, the exchane rate was 4-to-1 zloty to the dollar. Now, it’s less than 3-to-1.

*Poverty - it’s getting better for teams like Slovenia, Georgia, Belarus, Bulgaria and Moldova, but it still has a long ways to go, and through your ongoing support we’ll continue to help make their lives a little better.

*The Dutch - once again, a bit over-the-top and obnoxioux, although not as bad as some other Netherlands groups we’ve run into here.

*Sandpaper masquerading as toilet paper - enough said.

*Tissue-paper-thin napkins - your facial pores absorb more than these things do.

*No ice - If I wanted my drink warm, I would have ordered coffee.

ARRIVED IN UTENA in time for Sam and I to coordinate the coaches/umpires meeting for the Lithuanian Juniors Friendship Tournament, which starts Friday at 10 am local time (midnight Thursday in CA).

Dublin, CA meets Moscow in Game 1. Other teams in this five-day event are Irvine, CA; Brest, Belarus; Vilnius I, Lithuania; Vilnius II; Utena, Lithuania, and Ostrava, Czech Republic., followed by Belarus vs. Vilnius, Lithuania at 12:30 p.m.

With two California teams involved, local organizers have publicized this event quite heavily, and it’ll be interesting to see if this second annual event has picked up additional momentum.

We gave Arnoldas Ramanaskas the plate for the tourney’s opening game, Dublin-Moscow. He is a Lithuanian umpire who last year did the Juniors World Series in Taylor, MI.

I’M OUT!!!

Jeff Chapman LL Diary Day 11

When Andrey Vesenev struck out his 11th German batter of the game to bring down the curtain on the 2006 European Regional here in Kutno, Poland, Russia had accomplished as one-sided a performance as this tournament has ever seen.

Yes, this was the most competitive this regional has ever been. But, that being said, there was no denying Russia was the best team in the field, especially after manhandling the team from Mannheim, 4-0.

How dominant were they?

* The Russians went 8-0.

* They outscored their opponents 64-2.

* They beat all three other tourney semifinalists, 20-2.

* They had a team ERA of 0.14 (one earned run in 43 innings).

* They used eight different pitchers, and not one of them pitched more than 3 innings until Vesenev went the distance Thursday.

And now they’re off to the LLWS for the second straight year. It’s the fifth time in six years that Russia has represented Europe in Williamsport.

“They were the best team all week, and they were the best team today,” acknowledged Germany coach Kai Leiter.

Not only did Vesenev throw a one-hitter with 11 strikeouts, but he was 3-for-3, and his RBI double in the fourth looked like it was going to stand up until Russia struck for three more runs in the sixth. Ninth-place hitter Andrey Shevchenko’s 2-run single was the big blow.

Manager Alexey Erofeev’s team, which went 0-3 at the LLWS last year, will find itself in an even tougher pool in ‘06, joining Mexico, Caribbean and Far East. Although he has six returning players from last year’s club.

“We are very, very happy - we beat the best in Europe, and now we will try to beat the best in the world,” he said, smiling for one of the few times all week. “We hope our experience and pitching will be good enough.”

Russian coach Andrey Tselikovski said that when this team boarded the train in Moscow for the 20-hour ride to Kutno, they had packed for a month.

“Not only that, but we only bought one-way train tickets,” he said. “Our motto is: If you don’t come to win, don’t come at all.”

LOOSE AS A GERMAN GOOSE: It was the 5th inning of a 1-0 championship game, the umpires had just danced to YMCA and Germany’s Leiter, who you would have expected to be very intense, was on his way to the third-base coach’s box. “You guys,” he said to a group of umpires seated behind the backstop watching the game, “need work.”

DASVADANYA DEPT.: My mother made me go to summer school when I was 10, and I opted to take Russian. I understand a little bit, but not enough to underdstand what gruff Russia manager was yewlling - and I mean yelling - at his players all week.

So I sat next to Piotrek Lapaj, a fine Polish umpire, during the title game. Russian and Polish are pretty similar.

Most of what Erofeev screemed at his players after striking out or making an error was about what I had expected.

But one caught me off-guard.

With a runner at third and one out, Russia’s Mikhail Novozilov struck out and. Erofeev barked at him all the way back to the dugout.

I asked Lapaj to interpret.

“He said, “What did you do that for? You know our next batter can’t hit.”"

Ironically, he was speaking about Shevchenko, who delivered the 2-run single later in the game.

NOTES: Plate umpires for the final two games we’re both from SoCal. Sam Griffith from Dist. 68 in Mission Viejo, who’s been coming to Kutno since 2002, had his first championship game. Dave Diaz from Dist. 21 in the Inland Empire, making his first trip to the European Regional, had the third-place game (Moldova beat Austria 4-1). Dave is responsible for the ground crew at the West Regional in San Bernardino…Canadian umpire Gil Ladoucer, who has been coming to Kutno each summer for nine years, announced at the umpire breakfast that this will be his last go-round. Gil was the single-biggest reason why visiting teams and umpires have supported the local orphanage for the last seven years…There have been fewer friendship games in this tourney than ever before, mostly due to the weather. Today, Netherlands met Italy, and the Slovenia coaches umpired. Doesn’t get much friendlier than that…Thursday morning, it’s off to Utena, Lithuania, about 8 hours away, for the start of the second-ever Lithuania Juniors Friendship Tournament. Two American teams - from Dublin and Irvine - have been in Lithuania for a few days, touring and practicing. Five of the kids on the Moscow entry in the Lithuania tournament played last year for the Russia 12-year-old team that went to the LLWS…Talk to you tomorrow from Lithuania.

I’M OUT!!!

Jeff Chapman LL Diary Day 10

Another sign that the quality of Little League baseball in Europe is improving: Tuesday’s semifinals were the lowest-scoring, most competitive in the history of this regional.

Defending champion Russia beat Moldova as expected, but only by a 4-1 count. Germany bettered Austria in the other semi, also as expected, but the final was only 4-0.

The four runs scored in the nightcap are a new single-game low in the regional semifinal, beating the five scored in the first game on Tuesday and in Lithuania’s 3-2 win over Netherlands in 2004. The 9 total runs blew away the previous record of 22, set in 2003.

“More teams are playing better baseball in Europe,” said Germany manager Kai Leiter when asked to explain the competitiveness in this tournament. “Each year, it seems there are fewer and fewer 10-run-rule games. Even the lower-tier teams are better than in past years.”

Austria manager Phil Chapin was happy to be a part of history, wishing of course that he was on the other end of it, but he too was pleased to see how competitive this regional is becoming.

“We all benefit from this,” he said. “We are all closing the gap on Russia a little bit at a time, and it’s not just one or two teams doing it - it’s about a half dozen.”

Still, only one team came to Kutno with bags packed for a month - Russia, which has been to the LLWS in Williamsport four of the previous five years.

Because of the timing between the end of this regional and the start of the LLWS, the European champ leaves directly for the U.S. from here.

“We have played two 3-run games in a row, and that’s a first,” said Russia coach

Andrei Tselikovski, referring to Tuesday’s win as well as Monday’s 3-0 victory over Italy. “What does it all mean? Hard to say, but it’s obvious that the quality of play throughout Europe is getting better.”

What’s his spin on why that is?

“Americans,” he said without hesitation. “America has taken an interest in the progress of European baseball. Financial assistance, equipment, uniforms, clinics, American coaches…it started years ago, and now, apparently, it’s starting to show itself here.”

UMPIRES WIN, FILM AT 11: As has been the case every year, the umpires and grounds crew beat the coaches in the softball exhibition, 56-10, using plenty of creative scoring and defensive trickery.

Umpires coach Russ Ruslender gave me a ball to put in my pocket as I ran out to left field “just in case anyone hits a home run right over your head - just pretend like you caught it.”

Sure enough, right on cue, the first batter, an Italian coach, hit a homer just over the fence. I jumped, came down with the planted ball in my glove, showed it for all to see, and my fellow umpires - who were in on the gag - started jumping up and down to celebrate.

I think there are some people in the stands who actually believe I caught it. Classic.

CHAMPIONSHIP WEDNESDAY: Austria meets Moldova in the third-place game, followed by tourney unbeatens Russia and Germany battling for the right to go to the LLWS. Umpire assignments will be announced at the umpire breakfast Wednesday morning.

I’M OUT!!!

Jeff Chapman LL Diary Day 9

On Sunday, when it rained for 18 straight hours, there wasn’t much reason for optimism that the weather was going to change.

Unless you were Italian.

About 90 minutes before their scheduled showdown against unbeaten Russia, when all the other teams were going back to bed or engaging in pillow fights, the Italians put on their uniforms and trudged to the field through the driving rainstorm, only to discover that they were alone. No LL officials, no groundskeepers, no umpires, no Russians.

So what did the Italians do?

They sat in the dugout. Like church mice. For 90 minutes. Waiting for someone to show up.

“We’re Italian - we don’t know when to come in out of the rain,” cracked the team’s immenently likeable 60-year-old manager, Mario Andriolo.

Skies cleared and the Italians got their shot at the Russians Monday morning, and while the result - a 3-0 loss - wasn’t what they were hoping for, Italy gained a gondola-full of respect in this tournament by beating Netherlands, playing Russia tougher than anyone else and compiling a 3-2 record.

They missed making the semifinals of the European LL Championships here in Kutno, Poland by one game.

Tuesday’s semifinals pit Pool A winner Russia (6-0, outscoring opponents 56-1) against Pool B runnerup Moldova (4-1) and Pool B champ Germany (5-0) against Pool A runnerup Austria (4-1, first time in European semis in post-KMac era). At stake on Wednesday is a berth in the LLWS in Williamsport, PA starting next week.

For the team from Verona, there was no outward disappointment because there were no expectations, despite the fact the Italians had to win a 7-team tournament to get here. Plus, this team is a total representation of its manager - an absolute compliment. This guy is such a jewel that Fremont, CA unpire Vic Langford honored him Monday night at the local eatery/watering hole with a Warm Springs LL jacket, calling him “The manager I have enjoyed working with the most and whose demeanor best reflects what Little League is all about.”

“We bring this team to Kutno and we hope for the best, said Andriolo, a retired bus company executive who has either played, umpired or coached baseball for over 40 years. “This is the first international tournament for our team, and it will not be the last. We are very passionate about baseball in Italy, and after this experience, we will go home, get better and come back.”

If Verona wins the Italian championship and returns in 2007, it’ll be without star pitcher Davide Benetti, who beat Netherlands 4-3 while striking out 15 and lost to Russia, striking out 11 in five innings and allowing no earned runs. He is a flat-out stud, a 5-foot-8, long-armed, freewheeling flame-thrower whose curve is devastating as well.

Ths year’s Italy team also has the tournament’s only female, Nicola Falzi, who batted .333 and tripled against Russia Monday.

“We are developing players, getting more and more kids involved at a young age,” said Andriolo. “We’ve been here now, we know the rules. If we’d known them BEFORE we got here, we might have won our first game, and then WE would be in the semifinals.”

NOTES: Belarus pitcher Novik Aliaksandr struck out 18 in a six-inning, 3-2 win over Slovenia today…Tuesday’s semifinal plates went to Larry McEwen from Calif. D13 in Thousand Oaks and to Ken Garrison from Texas D14 in League City, outside Houston.

I’M OUT!!!

Jeff Chapman LL Diary Day 8

If there’s anything more frustrating than going halfway around the world to watch it rain…well, quite frankly, I can’t think of anything more frustrating than that right now.

It began to rain just after midnight Saturday night and the Polish weather gods reared their ugly heads all day and into the night.

Finally, at 6 pm local time, after 18 straight hours of rain, and recognizing it would take 2+ hours to get any of the three 60-foot fields ready whenever it stopped, Regional Director Beata Kaszuba threw up her hands and surrendered. With that, the first-ever full-day washout of games at the European LL Regional Tournament in Kutno, Poland was in the books Sunday.

There have been over 50 European regional tournaments held in Kutno going back to 1995. Tournaments take an average of 6 days, meaning Sunday’s cancellation was the first in close to 300 tournament days.

Frustrating for coaches, kids and umpires, to be sure, as we were on standby all day in case skies lightened. Moreover, it’s a logistics nightmare for Little League.

This tournament HAS to end Wednesday, and there are still 14 games left in pool play, plus Tuesday’s semifinals and title game.

Many options remain, including playing double-headers and/or wiping out Tuesday’s semis, but there’s a tremendous amount of pressure on Monday’s weather to cooperate, and the forecast isn’t very promising.

Why does the tournament have to end Wednesday? Because Thursday, the winning team has to go to Warsaw for visa processing (Friday and the weekend are dead days in that regard). Monday morning, the team flies to Williamsport (tickets were purchased months ago) for the LLWS, which starts Aug. 18.

Of the 14 pool-play games remaining, there are 7 that MUST be played. Chief among them are Russia (5-0) vs. Italy (3-1) and Austria (3-1) vs. Netherlands (2-2) in Pool A, and Germany (4-0) vs. Poland (2-1) in Pool B.

LOCAL HONORS: Last month, Elaina Jurecki from San Ramon American LL was named Mom of the Year by Little League International. And now, Mike Flynn of Dublin LL has been named “Coolest Coach of the Year.” Both of them will be flown to Williamsport and honored during the LLWS.

Pray for sun in Kutno Monday.

I’M OUT!!!

Jeff Chapman LL Diary Day 7

They don’t have an award for the best 0-3 team in the European LL Regional here in Kutno, Poland.But if they did, no one would hold a candle to Bulgaria.

The Bulgarians have lost consecutive 1-run games to European powers Moldova and Poland after a tourney-opening 12-0 shellacking at the hands of Germany. In both close losses, Bulgaria led late in the game.

“That is frustrating. We could be 2-1 and competing for a semifinal game,” said Bulgarian coach Lubo Georgiev.

“But we are still learning how to play,” he went on. “We understand the rules…but we don’t understand the little things.”

Like forcing the action by taking the extra base. Like pitching to spots and mixing up pitches. Like giving up a run but keeping another runner from getting into scoring position. The list goes on and on.

But one thing you can say about the Bulgarians - their country’s LL program is on the rise. In five years of coming to Kutno, the Bulgarians have advanced as far as the quarterfinals only once, losing to Lithuania.

There are a number of reasons for Bulgaria’s progress, chief among them the American influence of the Gill family and Georgiev’s fulltime commitment as a paid coach working for the Bulgarian Ministry of Sport.

The Gills are Scott and Lisa, U.S. missionaries from Colorado (Scott is very proud of the fact that he played intramural tennis at Colorado State). They’ve been in Bulgaria 13 years and have six kids, two of which (Jeremy and Scott) currently play on the team. Jeremy, 12, is a first baseman/pitcher who is the on-the-field coach.

Scott coached the Bulgarian team here in 2004, lending the expertise of an American baseball junkie.

“They ARE making progress,” Scott said of the Bulgarian LL program. “It may be slow, but it’s steady.”

Through the efforts of many leagues in the U.S., mostly in NorCal and SoCal, Bulgaria and surrounding countries are receiving a tremendous amout of baseball equipment, uniforms and generic clothing - so much that they are sharing with neighboring countries.

“Please thank all the Americans who have helped us,” said Georgiev.

“They have no idea how valuable their contributions have been,” said Scott. “Basically, without them, there’d BE no program.”

NOTES: Pool A leaders: Russia 5-0, Austria 3-1, Italy 3-1…Pool B leaders: Germany 4-0, Moldova 3-1, Poland 2-1…Sunday’s big matchups: Russia vs. Italy and Germany vs. Poland…Ken Garrison and Dave Diaz, two of our umpires from the states, took the Moldova team to dinner Saturday night…Malady Dept.: Umpire Perry Tucker from Dublin was stung by a bee; one of the Georgia coaches had a tooth extraction; a Moldovan player had his leg cast after slipping and falling…When this tournament is over, somewhere in Verona will be an Italian LL coach with a North Coast Section baseball sweatshirt that once graced my closet.

I’M OUT!!!

Jeff Chapman LL Diary Day 6

The game had ended, the rain was becoming more intense and Germany manager Kai Leiter was in a celebratory mood.And why not? His team had just put its stamp on Pool B by routing Moldova, the only other unbeaten in the group, 15-3, in Kutno, Poland at the European LL Regional on Friday.

So how did Leiter celebrate? By running 20 laps between the foul poles on the adjacent 90-foot diamond. Why? “Because I lose a bet with my team - I said we could not 10-run a team as good as Moldova,” said Leiter.

If Moldova is good, then what does that make Germany? In three games, they’ve outscored their opponents 30-3. Barring the unexpected, Germany and Russia, which has outscored its four opponents 41-1, will play for the berth in Williamsport next Wednesday night.

This is Leiter’s third go-round in Kutno, and the one thing that is abundantly clear from talking to him, watching him coach and the way he interfaces with his team is this: the man respects life and has a genuine appreciation for everything he has, tangible or not.

And if coaching at the European Regional and seeing needy teams like Romania, Belarus, Slovenia and Georgia doesn’t give you enough perspective on life, walking the streets of Ellwangen working with at-risk kids sure does.

That’s what the 41-year-old Leiter does when he’s not coaching baseball.

“It’s given me a whole different perspective on life, and working with people,” he said. “I see kids everyday, in their street surroundings, and it’s my job to get them to trust me, so that maybe they take advantage of the resources I offer from the state and city.”

The street kids of

Ellwangen, pop. 20,000, about 100 km from Stuttgart, come from Germany, of course, but also from Russia, Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. They have a variety of issues - drugs, alcohol, homelessness, hunger…you name it.

That’s forced Leiter to learn how to adapt and connect to kids with comp